My colleague William Kellaway, who has died aged 90, was secretary and librarian of the Institute of Historical Research at Senate House in London – part of the University of London – and an important figure for anyone who cares about the history of the capital.
He was born and brought up in Melbourne, Australia, the son of Eileen (nee Scantlebury) and Charles, a doctor who moved to Britain with his family in 1944 to become director of scientific policy at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, in London. After the second world war, Bill studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford – and stayed in London for the rest of his life. His first job was in Guildhall Library, where the collection of books and manuscripts would inspire his subsequent work on the history of medieval London.
He organised and compiled three volumes of the Bibliography of Historical Works Issued in the United Kingdom (1962, 1967, 1972) and had an encyclopedic knowledge of historians, young and old, and their work. But his greatest achievement was the launching in 1964 of the London Record Society, which published little-known documents relating to the history of the capital.
Even when nominally edited by others, most of these were “super-edited” by Bill with scholarly precision. These records sometimes showed how little things have changed, recounting disputes between medieval neighbours over leaking gutters, invasions of privacy and party walls (the Assize of Nuisance).
Or they might be more historically revelatory: one volume offers the minutes to the meetings of the early 19th-century radicals led by Francis Place who agitated for political and social reform. As honorary general editor of the society’s publications, Bill oversaw the production of a volume every year until 1983. Editing these 19 volumes, with material ranging from the 12th to the 19th century, was a prodigious task which he performed with his trademark patience and courtesy.
In 1984, Bill retired and turned his historian’s eye to art history – an abiding passion. He was an old style scholar-librarian of the best kind. He paid lip service to pessimism but was unable to subdue his intellectual enthusiasms or his delight at the success of others.
Bill was married to the English teacher and garden writer Deborah Kellaway (nee Newton), whom he met at Oxford. She died in 2006.
He is survived by his daughters, Kate and Lucy, his son, Roland, and 10 grandchildren.
